Big Boy bed drama

We bought a big boy bed for Pepe almost one year ago. His room is pretty big and it easily accommodates the crib and big boy bed. We have been talking about switching Pepe to the big boy bed for a while now, but since t here is no pressure -he does not insist or especially like the big boy bed, and he does not get out of his crib - we procrastinated. Until New Years Eve. I was at the neighbours' house and Chris, in charge of bedtime, decides to have Pepe sleep in the big boy bed. It worked beautifully! He slept through the night, and in the morning, the biggest presents ever, he went downstairs and we found him there when we woke up. However, it was a downward spiral after that. Every single night Pepe would get our of the big boy bed, start playing, come downstairs. We'd put him back in the bed, tell him that if he gets our he'll go into the crib, out him in the crib bc he did get out of the bed, listed to him screaming, trying to sleep on the floor in his room to help him fall asleep, listening to more screaming, and then giving in and bringing him in our room, "sleeping" worried that we might hurt him or that he would wake up, which he did, at ungodly hours like 5:00am or 4:45 am. Last night Chris was out and I had a crazy day interviewing 8 psych fellows in the am, dealing with 80 emails acquired between 9am and 3pm, and I did not even go through the entire process, just brought Pepe into the bed with me at 9pm and we both slept until the morning, sans Chris, who supposedly tried to get into the bed with us when he got home but there was no room. So now Pepe is talking about sleeping with mommy and daddy every night. We are biting the bullet tonight - took all the toys out of hims room and we are going to stay strong and not take him into our bed. We'll see. I am not convinced I am going to be able to do it.

playing "pretend"

I went to get Pepe from his bed after his afternoon nap. Lately, he has been asking me to get into his crib with him, which I also did today. We snuggled a bit and then Chris came and got Pepe out of the crib. Next, I started pretending I was Pepe...
AM (pretending to be P): Mommy, can you lay down on the ground with me...
P (Pretending to be mommy): OK, but only for one minute.
AM: I want something...chocolate
P: No, not now.
AM: I want something to drink.
P: No, mommy, I mean no Pepe.
AM (with my leg up): I want to get out. I want to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed.
P: No, you can't
AM: But I am lonely
P: Well, you can use your imagination....You have your friends in bed with you, too.
AM: I want the light on
P: I am going now, you have to sleep. And tomorrow we will have fun....

It's been a looooooong time...

Sorry for the delay in my blogging. I also have a personal running blog which took precedence to this one, for a little while. Lots has been happening. Pepe has been making huge strides with his language skills. He's got the tenses down, and has learned the proper usage of adverbs such as "often" and "usually". So grown up.

He has been worried about mommy going for a run early in the morning after a snow storm
"Mommy, don't go running, it's icy and you are going to fall".

He has been very difficult to play with, as he wants company but does not let you touch any of the toys. He's got mommy's control issues.

He has been eating lots of chocolate and very little else.

He has been growing a lot. He's got Chris's skinny genes for sure.

He can't understand that people can share a name. When I told him that my mom's name is Ana-Maria, and my dad's name was Pepe, he laughed thinking I am teasing him. "Don't tease me mommy".

He LOVES sledding. We went a few times and he was the youngest kid going down on a huge hill (with me or Chris on the sled, of course).

We have been working on transitioning to the big boy bed. As such, bedtimes are now 2h+ because the boy gets out of the bed and comes downstairs as soon as we leave the room. I tried sleeping with him in the bed, helping him get adjusted to the bed, but it did not work. So after 2 h of trying , he goes back into his crib. Since I am back to work on Monday and I will not have 2 hours per night to spend helping him fall asleep (also, he needs his sleep bc he needs to be up early for school), we are going to give him one chance to sleep in the big boy bed, and if he gets out of the bed, he goes into the crib. I am counting on classical conditioning, as I realized Pepe is not developmentally able to think of consequences. Will see.

The other night, after I transferred him to the crib
P:"Mommy, I have a fever, I have a fever, I have a fever"
After 5 min or so, I go check on him.
AM: Hm, let's check you, no fever on your head, no fever on your body, nope, no fever.
P: Mommy , do you want to lay down on the floor I am scared (yes, right)
AM: OK, just one minute.
The trouble with that is that he fails to fall asleep bc he checks on me every so often to make sure I am still there. After a while, I try to leave.
P: Mommy, don't go.
AM: I have to, baby.
P: Give me a kiss.
AM: OK
P: No, on the mouth (he has been into this lately, Oedipus complex time????)
AM: OK
P: A nose kiss.
AM: OK
P: An ear kiss
AM: OK
P: An eye kiss
AM: OK, now I go
P: But mommy,,,,the other ear, the other eye.
AM: OK, now say "good night" (I know that if he says good night, he usually settles)
P: Good night mommy..
*
Next day I follow up on the fever conversation.
AM: So, you thought you had a fever last night.
P: Yes, I had fever
AM: Really, coz you got a flu shot, remember, so you would not get a fever.
P: yes...
AM: Maybe you had bed fever..
P: Yes, bed fever.
AM: Why did you say you had a fever?
P: Because when I have a fever I go into mommy and daddy's bed and sleep with mommy and daddy...
(Hm, next time he does have a fever will think twice about using the mommy and daddy's bed strategy)
C: Well, Pepe, when you have a real fever mommy and daddy want you close to check on you. You remember it is not fun to have a fever, you don;t feel well.
P: Yes, but I feel lonely in my crib, I can't get out (well, that's the point, kid!).
AM: You don;t need to get out, you need to sleep. You have your snugglies there.
P: Yes......
Oh, and this is how I found out that Chris used to pull the "sick" once in a while to stay home and watch TV (Supposedly the moment everyone left the house he used to go: "YES" and get himself icecream and turn the TV on.). I also used to play with the thermometer so I could stay home a day or two longer when I was sick....

*
These days home went by quickly. I started my training for the Boston Marathon in April. We went to the Y a lot. We went sledding a lot. We saw Charlie and Sonia and Sonia's parents who are visiting from France (the coolest, hippes, most happy couple I have ever met!) for late nights with food and games (Oh, and they invited us to Paris and Tunis...nice!), I had girl's night, Chris had a few outings involving sports and a trip to Harvard Square, we saw the neighbours for a playdate and for a movie, we said "good by" to another neighbours who went back to Holland after 3 months in the US, and who left a ton of food for use. Now it's back to work and I foresee that tomorrow morning both Pepe and I might be trying to pull an "I am sick" one.....It's always hard going back, but we are super excited mom is coming in one week! Hurray!